User Reviews (1 - 11 of 413)

Show these reviews first:

Highest Rated
Lowest Rated Newest
Oldest Most Helpful
Least Helpful

So much fun!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 36
Date: March 25, 2001
Author: Amazon User

This game has the best features ever seen in any game! The AI is beutifull, physics is included, and it it, the best game for a long while, of its kind!

OMG!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 27
Date: March 27, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I urge everyone that even had the smallest thought of playing or at least trying a game to give this one a huge try! OMG, I need to breath!

KISS YOUR SOCIAL LIFE GOODBYE

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 12 / 31
Date: March 27, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Say goodbye to your family, friends and co-workers. Black and White is about to change computer gaming as we know it. The AI is unbelieveable, the graphics are outstanding, the gameplay is ground breaking and fresh. If you buy one game this year, make sure this is it.

Amazing

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 49 / 51
Date: March 28, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Okay, I'll admit it. I was skeptical. The game couldn't be as good as everyone says it is. Thanks to a couple industry connections I got a sneak peek at the game -- a day before it goes on retail shelves.

Well, it's better than excellent. This game is a classic. It really is.

Some highlights:

- Superb graphics. The ability to swoosh and zoom in on every little bit of the island is incredible. You can zoom over mountains, zoom into huts, zoom up into the sky: it's really amazing.

- Superb sound. If you have positional speakers, the sound is quite effective. Moreover, it's one of the few games where sound actually enhances the game: you hear splashes, can hear the villagers go about their business, can even hear the cries of the villagers if (heaven forbid) you choose to become an "evil" god and start tossing them willy nilly into huts, flinging them across the town square, or dropping them from dizzying heights. It's amazing.

- And, of course, superb AI: you're god and you choose a creature -- cow, ape, tiger -- to represent your god-like self. The creature -- with only minimal learning -- begins to adopt a personality. You pet it when it does good things (the creature giggles and laughs) and you whack it -- slap it back and forth -- when it does bad things (like, er, eating the little villagers, not that I advocate that ... ahem.)

- A fascinating tutorial. If it's your first time playing, you're guided along by dual consciences -- a devlish little red guy (advocating destruction) and a blissed-out, sandal-wearing little British gentlemen (advocating kindness and compassion). As you get your bearings, these two little creatures float about the screen and point things out ("Pick up the little rock here and bring it to the sculptor!" "Check the scrolls. Scrolls are good!" "Hey, get real, do you *really* wanna save that villager from drowning?") It's pretty entertaining just watching these two little avatars compete for your attention.

The tutorial shows you how to move -- which is a little difficult at first, but you can remap the key board keys -- shows you how to construct your "temple" (and takes you inside of it for a really whacked out view of *TOTAL* control. The temple contains rooms -- a save game room, a help room, a library room -- which, in turn, contain various "picture frames" that allow you to replay certain events, zip right to specific tasks, and more. The temple is pretty darn cool in itself.)

Aside from teaching you the finer points of the game -- movement, in particular -- the tutorial really unveils the incredible richness of the world -- and truly gives you a god-like feeling. The tutorial offers you several challenges -- a few are a little difficult since you're not familiar with the world and it takes some time to figure out how move about and find things -- but as you complete the challenges you come to understand the complexity of this game. The "cartoonish" of the Sim games suddenly becomes apparent as you play 'Black & White' and face some pretty interesting moral dilemmas. You can choose how to resolve each dilemma, but once you choose, you must of course face the consequences. Do the villagers worship you? Do they fear you? Do they respect you? Is there a more subtle (and perhaps complex) chain of events that is triggered by your individual "god-like" actions?

It's interesting, too, that it's possible to be a morally "complex" god. You don't *have* to be 100% good. You can throw in a little, er, terror to make the villagers stand up and take notice.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not advocating that this game presents gamers with an "authentic" moral universe. But I understand -- and this only after a few hours of play -- that as far as "games" go, Black and White offers unique moral universe of its own devising -- with a specific set of rules and consequences.

For that alone, the game goes slightly -- ever so slightly -- past the idea of "gaming" and approaches the realm of sophisticated simulation. (It's better, I'll add, then the traditional "historic" wargame that attempts to very carefully model real world events. B&W is a game which creates a unique universe and then models it amazingly well -- both graphically and (yes, I'll admit it) emotionally.)

Maybe B&W succeeds so well because it offers (even more so than the "SIMS" simulations) the sophistication of truly *interesting* (and often unpredictable) artificial intelligence.

Or maybe it's the fact that the game encompasses a complex world that (taken on its own terms) offers a variety of subtle challenges not usually found in computer games.

But buy this game: it's fascinating.

The Most Highly Anticipated Game Lives Up The Hype!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 10 / 25
Date: March 29, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I won't lie I've been waiting for this game for about 2 years. To kill time I've been playing other hits such as Counter-Strike and because I was so bored I played some Knights and Merchants. Well finally it arrives at my doorstep in the same old Amazon Box I love to see when I get home.

The interior: I open the box and boom there it is Black side of the box facing up. I immediately toss the amazon box and open up the front of the box to see what they put together. WOW! The black side of the box explains the evil. The White explains of course the good. The box was one of the coolest I've seen but then again its just a box. So I open up the box and theres this stupid AOL disc and then a bunch of registration stuff and then theres the CD. Sitting in a nice case. I open it up to suprisingly one cd! I don't know how they did it but they did it.

The Game: LET ME TELL YOU RIGHT NOW IF YOU DO NOT GO AND BUY THIS GAME YOU ARE MISSING ONE OF THE BEST GAMES OF THE YEAR. This game is already in the hall of fame in my book. I have rings around my eyes and I can't sleep. I give this game a 9.9 out of 10 because at first the sound didn't work then I restarted my computer and then it worked so that was kinda annoying and it did the same thing for my friend but oh well must have been the Direct X but it didn't give me anything about restarting my computer. Anyway buy it. I don't need to explain the details to tell you how good it is. You've seen the hype it lives up to it double. BUY IT!

Forget any doubts...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 7
Date: March 29, 2001
Author: Amazon User

My friend and I went to the mall yesterday and camped out at the store that was to recieve Black and White. My friend was the first to get it, right out of the UPS delivery boxes. I told him "Let's not expect too much, because that only means we can be disappointed". How wrong I was. We installed it, and began playing. Incredible is about all I can say. I didn't know how incredible until just last night and this morning. I played this game for like 10 hours straight. I didn't get any sleep tonight, and unfortunately, I don't think I will be getting sleep for awhile longer. I don't want to go into the details because half of the joy is finding out the little touches in the game for yourself, but make no mistake: this is the game to buy. Im gonna go play some more.

WHY ARE YOU NOT PLAYING THIS GAME RIGHT NOW?

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 7
Date: March 29, 2001
Author: Amazon User

If you like simulation,rpg and strat games, this is ur game. It has the best AI, graphics of any other game I have ever played in my 30 years as a gamer. Why am i wasting time writing this review, I must return to the game!

Holy mother of God

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 12
Date: March 29, 2001
Author: Amazon User

This isn't a game, it's your new way of life. Be prepared to shun your friends, lose 20 pounds and turn very pale, because you won't be coming outside anymore. I am 10 hours into the game and I've barely scratched the surface. BUY THIS GAME.

New Era in Gaming

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 17 / 19
Date: March 29, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Take a Tamagochi, Populous 3, and Starcraft and throw them all into a 3D blender. You get Black and White. It's hard to call this software a game. It's more like an experience, or like having a small world in an aquarium and dipping in your hand to put things the way you want them. I have only played this game for two days, but I am going to put Diablo 2 and Starcraft on the shelf for a long while.

Basically you get to help the little people in these worlds in whatever manner you see fit. If they need wood for a project you can get them wood, or smash the project so they don't need wood any more. Either way, the game doesn't care. Good and evil choices are made clear through two spirits that are your conscience. Good and evil choices also produce different results. The landscape changes over time to match your personality as a god. To top this off, you must select a creature. The artificial intelligence in this thing is better than any I have ever seen. It may not seem that way on the first level (it's mostly tutorial) but the AI fully kicks in for the second. You can teach your creature to do anything from watering trees, to uprooting them, to setting them on fire. Anything you want.

This game is for anyone. It's entertaining and fun, and highly innovative. I can guarantee you have not played anything like it (although little bits of Populous and Dungeonkeeper do shine through) My computer does meet the recommended hardware, but that is by no means a supermachine these days, and it runs extremely well. So don't waste anytime, this thing is flying off the shelves. Good luck and have fun!

This is the ultimate in Strategy Gaming!!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: March 29, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I've been waiting 2 years for this game, and it is definatley the ultimate in strategy games!!! If you want to buy your kid a game that isn't, usually, violent, and might actually teach them something, this is it. If you buy you child this game you will 1.) teach them to be responsible with their own increadibly intelligent pet 2.) teach them moral values, because the whole game revolves around how you play it, and the whole game world will change accordingly 3.) give them a whole lot of fun with 400 missions/tasks 4.) keep them from begging at your feet... and so on. The definative features of this game are the amazing graphics technology, and the slow, it isn't so fast that you'll start sweating just to keep up, and manipulative, you can do just about anything you want, game play. Also, this game is one of the first computer strategy games to have !!!NO INTERFACE!!! clouding up the screen. This means that everything you do in the game will be done with the mouse. Finally this game doesn't use texture patterns!!! There will be no repetative graphics, because it will create all graphics by blending textures to the exact detail, thus creating increadible graphics. THIS IS THE ULTIMATE IN MANIPULATIVE GAMING SO DONT MISS OUT ON IT!!!

Review Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Next 

Actions